Record $226M financings in 2018. New FinTech Incubator.
SAN DIEGO, May 1, 2019 – EvoNexus, Southern California’s (SoCal) leading startup incubator with locations in San Diego and Irvine, today announced it is increasing its value to the region’s Innovation Economy. The premier technology startup incubator reports its Portfolio companies raised a record $226 million in funding in 2018, and made six company exits during 2018: Edico Genome by Illumina for $100M, Approved by Credit Karma, LoanHero by LendingPoint, Appulse Power by Silanna Semiconductor, Abtum by undisclosed, Pet Wireless by undisclosed. Since its inception, 77% of EvoNexus’ Portfolio companies have raised funding while in residence at the incubator, of which investments came from over 175 institutional venture capital (VC) groups. 40 VCs invested in EvoNexus companies in 2018. During the last seven years, 26 EvoNexus portfolio companies have had successful exits; more than $850 million in exit value for the entire history to date. Startups participating in the EvoNexus in-residence program receive quality domain expertise mentoring, introductions to capital, collaboration with other startup CEOs and potential partnerships with strategic sponsors, and most importantly long-term residency in Class A office space for up to two years.
“Financings in 2018 included angel rounds ranging from $75K – $1.5M,” said Marco Thompson, President of EvoNexus, and serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist and angel investor. “The financings were highlighted by Series A and B deals including Syntiant $25M, LeadCrunch $10.5M, Obsidian $20M, Omniome $60M, TenantBase $10.7M and INBRACE $20M.”
A sustainable pillar in the San Diego and Irvine communities, EvoNexus has deep rooted collaborations with its original strategic partners the Irvine Company, Qualcomm and Viasat. Last year it announced four new long-term strategic partner sponsorships including Cubic, EMD Performance Materials, Franklin Templeton and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) – with more to be named during 2019.
“Transformational long-term strategic partner sponsorships are opportunities to buildout emerging ecosystems,” said Rory Moore, CEO and Co-Founder of EvoNexus. “Working with our strategic sponsors we can accelerate EvoNexus and its impact on the Innovation Economy. We’re now identifying and creating customized technology Portfolios within EvoNexus, and in some cases Incubators focusing on very specific tech sectors, all of which are driving new product roadmaps and infrastructure connections while fostering the fastest way to the commercialization of novel technologies and launch of startup companies.”
Earlier in the month, EvoNexus launched the SoCal’s first purpose built FinTech Incubator collaborating with founding sponsors Franklin Templeton and RBC, and last week announced its call for applications to admit new startups. The new 6,000 square feet of dedicated office space in San Diego is in the same building as EvoNexus’ Technology Incubator and is set to open its doors this month.
“EvoNexus continues to be a major contributor to the SoCal economy attracting and facilitating a large fraction of startup deals in San Diego and Irvine,” said Mike Krenn, CEO with The San Diego Venture Group (SDVG) Connect. “We recently announced our 2019 SDVG Cool Companies winners – more than a third of the companies are EvoNexus portfolio companies.”
“EvoNexus has an outstanding history of deal flow,” said Thompson. “There is no comparison with the high-quality companies we attract, incubate and launch. Our time tested selection process and incubation method produces top tier, fundable companies with viable technology.”
EvoNexus is attracting deal flow from the region’s nationally ranked business undergraduate and graduate programs at schools in San Diego, Orange County and Los Angeles areas, including University of California San Diego Rady School of Management, University of San Diego School of Business, San Diego State University Fowler College of Business, University of California Irvine Paul Merage School of Business as well as world class engineering programs of all levels at universities such as California Institute of Technology, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Los Angeles and University of Southern California.
EvoNexus hosts Deep Dive orientation sessions at our incubators for interested investors and startup entrepreneurs. The sessions are held bimonthly, typically on a Monday from 1:00 – 2:30 PM. To register for the May 13 Deep Dive orientation, visit https://evonexus.org/join/monthly-tours/.
About EvoNexus
EvoNexus is Southern California’s leading startup incubator with locations in San Diego and Irvine. We enable motivated entrepreneurs to turn their transformative technologies into fundable, commercially-viable companies. Since 2010, $1.65B in funding and acquisition outcomes have been achieved by EvoNexus startups. A total of 26 EvoNexus startups have been acquired since 2013. EvoNexus is supported by corporate investors, including some of the largest multinational corporations in the world. Its companies enjoy incubation of up to two years in Class A offices and dry lab spaces. For more information, please visit evonexus.org.
